Aggregated analytics for intelligent transportation systems

ABSTRACT

Various systems and methods for collecting and generating analytics of data from motor vehicle safety and operation systems are disclosed herein. In one example, various minor vehicle incidents and events such as hard braking, swerving, deceleration, are tracked and correlated to geographic locations. Event data for these incidents may be collected, aggregated, anonymized, and electronically communicated to a processing system for further analysis and identification of problematic roadway and traffic conditions.

PRIORITY APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.14/354,220, filed Apr. 23, 2014, which is a U.S. National StageApplication under 35 U.S.C 371 from International Application No.PCT/US2013/076132, filed on Dec. 18, 2013, published as WO 2015/094228,all of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments described herein generally relate to data collected andanalyzed from motor vehicles and transportation systems, and inparticular, to data collected from individual vehicles that is analyzedfor safety-related purposes.

BACKGROUND

Cities, municipalities, and other government entities commonly havelocations in their road systems that are prone to accidents and trafficissues. These “hot spots” may be caused by inadequate design of trafficcontrol structures (e.g., issues from signal lights, speed limits,inadequately marked road features, and the like), inadequate roadwaydesign (e.g., inadequate intersection flow, inadequate acceleration ormerge lanes, or improperly engineered surfaces), or correctableenvironmental factors (e.g., limited driver visibility due to trees,buildings, and the like).

The private or public authority that manages the road system may havelimited knowledge of these problem locations, and will generally onlyfocus remedial efforts at known locations of serious accidents orsignificant traffic congestion. Thus, analysis and modifications to theexisting features of a road system is often only conducted after data iscompiled from easily identifiable and well-documented events or trafficconditions.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, like numeralsmay describe similar components in different views. Like numerals havingdifferent letter suffixes may represent different instances of similarcomponents. Some embodiments are illustrated by way of example, and notlimitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an overview of data communications exchanged amongautomotive service providers, vehicular systems, and data processingsystems, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 2 illustrates an overview of communication mediums and dataexchanged with motor vehicle operation systems, according to anembodiment:

FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram of components connected with anadvanced driver assistance system of a motor vehicle, according to anembodiment; and

FIGS. 4A and 4B illustrate flowcharts for a method for collecting andreporting aggregated analytics from a vehicular system, according to anembodiment;

FIG. 5 illustrates a flowchart for a method for performing analyticsupon data provided from vehicular systems, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 6 illustrates a block diagram for an example machine upon which anyone or more of the techniques (e.g., operations, processes, methods, andmethodologies) discussed herein may be performed, according to anexample embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, systems, methods, and machine-readablemedia including instructions are disclosed that provide functionalityfor the collection and processing of intelligent transportation data.This intelligent transportation data may be collected from eventsexperienced by a plurality of motor vehicles that occur at a pluralityof different locations. For example, data values may be collected onminor incidents experienced by individual vehicles on a roadway, togather data used in further analysis and reports about the types ofadverse events that occur on the roadway. These data values areassociated with location information that enables further processing toidentify and focus on the location of the otherwise-unreported incidentsthat occur within a roadway. Additionally, this location information maybe used to correlate incidents experienced by different vehicles at thespecific location, to indicate frequent or widespread incidents andproblems caused by some characteristic of the roadway.

The following description provides various examples of how intelligenttransportation data on minor traffic incidents may be collected andderived from individual vehicles. This may include the anonymous andautomated collection of event data from advanced driver assistancesystems (ADAS) and other safety or information systems within a motorvehicle. The following description further describes techniques ofcommunicating such event data at appropriate times to a remoteprocessing service or system operated by a roadway authority or otherappropriate entity, and the type of analytics that may be performed uponthis event data to produce useful information.

“Near misses” or other minor driving incidents may include vehiclebehavior such as sharp braking, fast deceleration, swerving, and minorcollisions. These incidents may occur throughout the road system areoften not reported, even though such incidents provide usefulinformation about the state of the roadway and may indicate more seriousconditions. For example, a fast slowdown or hard braking eventexperienced by repeated motorists at a certain location may indicate alocation where traffic control or roadway modifications may prevent moreserious accidents or ease traffic concerns.

These minor driving incidents, when combined across many differentvehicles, periods of time, or road conditions (and combinationsthereof), may be used to produce valuable sets of aggregated data. Theaggregated data from these incidents may allow the road authority toidentify locations with higher occurrences of vehicle incidents in theroad system. The aggregated data may be filtered, refined, and furtherprocessed to produce useful information. For example, analytics or otherreport generating techniques may be used to filter and output displaysof selected groups of aggregated data, which allow the roadway authorityto identify locations where further investigation into problematicroadway or traffic control systems is beneficial. This will allow theroadway authority to take action to reduce or eliminate the road basedrisk, and potentially prevent future accidents.

FIG. 1 illustrates an overview 100 of data communications exchangedamong automotive service providers, vehicular systems, and processingsystems. In the following examples, minor vehicle incidents of interestthat produce recordable data are referred to as events, with the dataproduced for such events referred to as event data. It will beunderstood that such events may be generated as a result of any numberof roadway conditions, driver behavior, minor accidents, or vehicleoperations that occur along roadways.

As illustrated, events may occur at a first roadway location 102 (e.g.,on roadway US 101 at mile marker 238.3) associated with a first set ofgeographic coordinates 104 (e.g., latitude 43° 24′ 76″, longitude −124°13′ 45″) and at a second roadway location 110 (e.g., on roadwayInterstate 90 at mile marker 218.1) associated with a second set ofgeographic coordinates 112 (e.g., latitude 43° 53′ 03″, longitude −92°29′ 55″). Data produced for the events is correlated, associated, orenhanced with the respective location(s) of the events, in order tofacilitate geographical tracking of the events.

The events that occur at the first roadway location 102 and the firstgeographic coordinates 104 may include an Advanced Driver AssistanceSystem (ADAS) event 106 producing or contributing to a set of event data118, and an unreported minor accident event 108 producing orcontributing to a set of event data 120. The ADAS event 106 may produceevent data 118 as a result of data originating from an on-boardelectronic subsystem such as a vehicle safety system; whereas theunreported minor accident event 108 may produce the set of event data120 as the result of an automotive service provider assisting a servicecall (a service call that may have been manually or automaticallyinitiated by a human or vehicle system).

Likewise, the events that occur at the second roadway location 110 andthe second geographic coordinates 112 may include an ADAS event 114 froma third vehicle producing a set of event data 122, and an ADAS event 116from a fourth vehicle producing a set of event data 124. Each of theevent data 118, 120, 122, 124 includes time and location data fields toaccompany information from the respective motor vehicle or serviceprovider event. This location data may include the respective geographiccoordinates (e.g., coordinates 104 for event data 118, 120 andcoordinates 112 for event data 122, 124) indicating where the specificADAS or service provider events occurred.

The event data 118, 120, 122, 124 may be communicated in real-time orwith a delay via a cellular network carrier 126 (e.g., a 2G/3G or 4Gcellular network carrier). This data may be provided in the form of adata transmission of binary data to a specific service, or may beprovided in the form of a standardized data transmission such as a shortmessage service (SMS) or a like “text messaging” service transmission.The data produced by an ADAS event would typically contain small fieldsof relevant parametric data that would make it ideal for transmissionvia a SMS message or similar data service. The event data 118, 120, 122,124 may also be stored in the automobile until a convenient orcost-effective time to transmit the data back to an aggregation center(e.g., when the motor vehicle returns to a parking spot in range of alocal area network).

The event data 118, 122, 124 for an ADAS event may include an indicationof the type of system activated, such as: anti-lock breaking/breakingassist system, lane departure system, collision avoidance system, andthe like. The data for an ADAS event may also include any relevantparametric data to provide values that indicate the operating conditionsof the system or systems activated.

As further described, portions of data generated for the ADAS event maybe communicated in the event data 118, 122, 124 while ensuring that nouser identifiable information is collected. This may be facilitated by adata anonymization component that removes identifying information aboutthe particular motor vehicle, motor vehicle type, or user that providesthe information. In another example, the event data may be converted toa standard format or submitted in aggregate with a number of otheranonymized events, to enable collection of the underlying data withoutany possibility of real-time tracking of the motor vehicle driver.

The event data may be transmitted to a processing server or processingsystem such as a data aggregation center 132, using the internet 128 ortransmissions received via 2G and 3G cellular network infrastructure130. The data aggregation center 132 may collect and aggregate anonymousdata from ADAS subsystems, coupled with the geographical locationcoordinates and time-stamp, to identify locations throughout a roadwayor roadway system where driver assist systems or service providersystems have activated (and vehicle incidents and events have occurred).The data aggregation center may provide this event data to an analyticsand dashboard service 134, which generates graphical output or reportson the event data with the use of a series of processing servers 136 anddatabases within a data warehouse 138.

The aggregated data may be further processed in connection with specificanalytics and other enabled applications 140. For example, applicationprogramming interfaces may be used to interface with the analytics anddashboard service 134, or with the data processed and stored by theservers 136 and the data warehouse 138. Other types of data processingtechniques and analysis may be applied upon the aggregated event data bythird parties and third party services.

Within the scenarios described herein, the motor vehicles generating theADAS events 106, 114, 116 may be any type of personal or commercialmotor vehicle, such as a car, van, truck, or the like. In addition, themotor vehicles may be a personal transportation device operated by anycombination of human, machine-human, or machine control (includingautonomously operating transportation devices). The automotive serviceprovider assisting with the unreported minor accident event 108 or likeincident may include any number of service providers, such as a towtruck company, repair service, or automotive dealer, which assists themotor vehicle in response to an incident occurring at a particularlocation on the roadway system.

The ADAS subsystems used in the motor vehicles generating the ADASevents 106, 114, 116 may include any number of safety or human-machineinteraction systems that assist vehicle operation or provide data toindicate the status of vehicle operation. As non-limiting examples,these systems may include a lane departure warning system, a collisionavoidance system, an object or obstacle detection system, warningsystems, a braking system, a camera system, and the like. In addition todata from the ADAS subsystems, other mechanical and electronic systemstatus information from the motor vehicle may be provided with the eventdata (with information such as motor operating parameters, speed,braking condition, camera image data, or other parameters useful for thedetermination of the roadway operation of the motor vehicle). Further,the data provided from the ADAS events 106, 114, 116 may be specific tothe make or model of vehicle, the event type invoked, or settingsestablished for communication of the ADAS events.

FIG. 2 provides an illustration 200 of data communication mediums usedand the data communications exchanged with motor vehicle operationsystems, which may be used to transmit event data on pertinent trafficand vehicle operation incidents from a motor vehicle 202 to externalcommunication networks. The motor vehicle 202 includes varioussubsystems within its advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) 208 andvehicle control system 210 that produce useful event data in response toencountered incidents. The ADAS 208 and vehicle control system 210 mayalso provide output and accept commands within user interfaces providedby a navigation system 204 and an on-vehicle information interface 206(e.g., an “in-car infotainment system”).

The motor vehicle 202 operates its navigation system 204 to receivegeographic location coordinates from a global navigation satellitesystem (GNSS) 226, such as global positioning system (GPS) satellites.The navigation system 204 receives this information at regular intervalsand may provide and track a location of the motor vehicle with a highdegree of accuracy. The location coordinates available from thenavigation system 204 may be further recorded and communicated among theon-vehicle information interface 206, the ADAS 208, the vehicle controlsystem 210, and the incident collection and communication system asfurther discussed in FIG. 3.

The event data produced by the motor vehicle 202 may be exchanged withan external processing system (e.g., the data aggregation center 132 inFIG. 1) via direct communication with a variety of networks. As oneexample, the event data may be communicated with a transceiverconfigured to provide transmissions to a cellular wide area network(WAN) 222, based on an event-driven occurrence or based on a determinedschedule. (For example, the event data produced by the incident may beimmediately communicated after certain events, or aggregated andcommunicated with a set of events at a later period of time). The eventdata produced by the motor vehicle 202 may also be exchanged with theprocessing system via a communication with a wireless local area network224, such as a Wi-Fi network located at a parked location of the motorvehicle, with the Wi-Fi network operating according to an IEEE 802.11standard (e.g., an 802.11a/b/g/n/ac network).

As another example, the event data may be communicated with a smartphone220 (operated by a human driver or passenger, for example) which islocated inside or in proximity to the motor vehicle. The smartphone 220may receive the event data via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth network communicationsat regular intervals, and relay the event data communications to thecellular WAN 222. The smartphone 220 may also provide a user interface(through an “app” software application, for example) which enables someuser customization, tracking, or diagnostic of event data communicationsperformed or attempted by the motor vehicle.

In other examples, the motor vehicle 202 is configured to exchangecommunications with an intelligent transportation system 228, or othervehicles within a vehicular network 230. For example, the intelligenttransportation system 228 may be deployed with a network establishedalong a roadway that is accessible during operation of the motorvehicle. The intelligent transportation system 228 may be used toprovide road condition updates to the motor vehicle 202 such as speedlimit changes along the roadway, and receive event data on incidentsexperienced by the motor vehicle 202. As another example, the vehicularnetwork 230 may be used to provide peer-to-peer or relayedcommunications about traffic and roadway conditions along the roadway,and various incidents or events that may affect operation of othervehicles. The aggregated event data may be anonymized and exchangedamong various peers of the vehicular network, and communicated by selectpeers of the network to a processing system.

FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram 300 of components connected with anadvanced driver assistance system (ADAS) 302 of a motor vehicle,according to an embodiment. As shown the ADAS 302 includes a series ofsubsystems and interfaces. One of these interfaces, the controller areanetwork bus (CAN bus) interface 318, is operably connected with anincident collection system 330. The ADAS also includes a navigationsystem interface 304 to enable the access to location coordinates andinformation from the navigation system through the CAN bus interface318.

Within the ADAS 302, the safety-related subsystems may include anobstacle detection system 306, a traffic condition system 308, ananti-lock brake system 310, a collision avoidance system 312, a lanedeparture system 314, and a camera system 316. Each of these subsystemsmay provide guidance to motor vehicle operators or internal vehicleoperation systems to address detected safety incidents. Other types ofdetection subsystems may also be used and deployed within the ADAS 302.In addition, the ADAS 302 may include a data logging system 320 that isconfigured to capture, record, or maintain certain data values from therespective subsystems operating within the ADAS 302.

The incident collection system 330 is connected to the ADAS 302 throughthe CAN bus interface 318 and may be used to collect and obtain eventdata (including location coordinates from navigation system interface304) from a variety of motor vehicle subsystems. The incident collectionsystem 330 is further operably coupled to a data anonymizing system 340which enables the removal of sensitive or identifying information forthe particular vehicle or vehicle operator prior to communication. Theincident collection system 330 is further operably coupled to anincident communication system 350 which enables the communication andexchange of event data and associated information to a processing systemor service (using the communication networks and techniques illustratedin FIG. 2, for example).

FIGS. 4A and 4B illustrate flowcharts 400, 450 for methods of collectingand reporting aggregated analytics from a vehicular system. Theseexamples each address individual data compiled for a respective incidentor event that may occur from operation of the motor vehicle. It will beunderstood, however, that the techniques illustrated in flowcharts 400,450 may also be applied to multiple incidents or events occurring at aparticular location, or multiple incidents or events occurring atmultiple locations or throughout a period of time.

As illustrated in FIG. 4A, the flowchart 400 illustrates operations forcollection and communication of vehicle incident event data originatingfrom a discrete event. The operations may include the detection of theparticular vehicle incident or event, from monitoring of the ADAS orsafety system of the motor vehicle (operation 402). The incident orevent may be detected in connection with ongoing monitoring by anincident collection system, or the detection may be event driven. Theinformation produced from the ADAS or safety system, and otherinformation for the vehicle incident or event, may be recorded or stored(operation 404) by the incident collection system.

The location of the particular vehicle incident or event may bedetermined by identifying location information from coordinatesmaintained or obtained by a navigation system (operation 406) of themotor vehicle. This location information for the particular vehicleincident or event may be recorded or stored (operation 408) for furtherprocessing operations with the event data. The location information insome examples also may be associated or correlated with the particularvehicle incident or event by creating a set of event data (by theincident collection system, for example) that includes both theinformation from the ADAS system and the navigation system.

In some examples, the information may be communicated directly inreal-time or near-real-time to the processing system, with use of a widearea network communication (e.g., a message or data transmission on acellular mobile phone network). In other examples, the events andassociated location information may be combined to communicate aplurality of events. The events and associated location information maybe aggregated (operation 410) to provide all event data for a particularmotor vehicle over a period of time, for a particular event type over aperiod of time or number of events, or for events which include certaindata values received over a period of time or number of events. Theaggregated event data may be anonymized (operation 414) or otherwiseprocessed to remove identifying information collected on the driver,vehicle, vehicle type, or for select incident types. The aggregatedevent data including the event information and the location informationis then communicated to the processing system (operation 414) foranalytics and evaluation.

As illustrated in FIG. 4B, the flowchart 450 illustrates additional oralternative operations performed to record vehicle incident event datafor an identified vehicle incident or event. The operations depicted inFIG. 4B may occur in an alternate or modified sequence but indicate thetypes of information that is recorded or stored, and ultimately used forcommunications to the processing system.

As shown, operations are performed to record the time of the event(operation 452), the location of the event (operation 454), the type ofvehicle assistance or safety system that is invoked (operation 456), andany parametric data produced from the activated vehicle or safety system(operation 458). Additional fields of information obtained from the ADASor safety system also may be recorded for communication with the eventdata. For example, if the antilock brake system engages, the collectionsystem may check to see if there is any other applicable safety systemwarning, and if there are cameras, the cameras might record some imageor video (e.g., to determine the obstacle or traffic condition that theparticular vehicle has encountered).

In some examples, any user- or vehicle-identifying information may beremoved, obscured, or modified (operation 460) to enable the anonymousor non-traceable collection of event data. The anonymous collection ofthe event data is then communicated to the processing system (operation462).

FIG. 5 illustrates a flowchart 500 for a method of performing analyticsupon data provided from vehicular systems, such as operations performedby a processing system operated by a roadway authority. These operationsinclude processing the receipt of data, received from one or morevehicle monitoring systems (operation 502). A variety of datacommunications may be received, and the processing system may aggregatedata from a plurality of vehicle monitoring systems (operation 504) andlocations throughout a particular roadway or roadway system.

Data analytics performed on the aggregated data may include operationsincluding filtering the aggregated data to determine the types ofadverse incidents occurring on a roadway (operation 506), identifyingcommon or related incidents occurring within the roadway system(operation 508), and identifying locations of common or related adverseincidents occurring within the roadway system (operation 510). Thelocations of the common or related adverse incidents may be correlated(operation 512) to further determine the underlying contributing causesof the incidents, which may relate to roadway design or traffic controlsystems.

Further processing, modeling, and analysis may be performed upon thisdata to extract usable information to improve characteristics of theroadway or vehicle safety. As one example, the data may be correlatedwith traffic condition information of particular roadway location(s) ofinterest obtained from an intelligent transportation system. As anotherexample, analysis of the number of incidents may be produced in the formof a heat map, histogram, or other graphical report. The incidents couldalso be ranked, sorted, or filtered by the severity of the event (e.g.,to identify major deltas in change rapidly). A report could also outputa frequency-based histogram, based on longer term data over time, orreal-time data that shows roadway conditions building up quickly (froman accident, road hazard, and the like).

While many of the examples described herein refer to a motor vehicle andmotor vehicle roadways, it is understood that the data provided inconnection with analytics for safety purposes may apply to a variety oftransportation vehicles and devices. The data could also be used toenable future, unspecified applications regarding driver patterns,safety critical systems or other infrastructure related services. Thedata could also be used to improve ADAS or safety systems and improvethe performance of motor vehicles in certain locations.

Additionally, the examples described herein may apply to anytransportation device that is used on or near a public or privatetransportation medium. The techniques may be applied beyond motorvehicles to other types of personal transportation devices deployedamong smaller scales of roadways (such as bicycles on bicycle paths).Personal transportation devices include, but are not limited tobicycles, tricycles, unicycles, skateboards, kick scooters, wheelchairs,Segway® machines, inline skates, or the like.

Embodiments used to facilitate and perform the techniques describedherein may be implemented in one or a combination of hardware, firmware,and software. Embodiments may also be implemented as instructions storedon a machine-readable storage device, which may be read and executed byat least one processor to perform the operations described herein. Amachine-readable storage device may include any non-transitory mechanismfor storing information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., acomputer). For example, a machine-readable storage device may includeread-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), magnetic diskstorage media, optical storage media, flash-memory devices, and otherstorage devices and media.

Examples, as described herein, may include, or may operate on, logic ora number of components, modules, or mechanisms. Modules may be hardware,software, or firmware communicatively coupled to one or more processorsin order to carry out the operations described herein. Modules mayhardware modules, and as such modules may be considered tangibleentities capable of performing specified operations and may beconfigured or arranged in a certain manner. In an example, circuits maybe arranged (e.g., internally or with respect to external entities suchas other circuits) in a specified manner as a module. In an example, thewhole or part of one or more computer systems (e.g., a standalone,client or server computer system) or one or more hardware processors maybe configured by firmware or software (e.g., instructions, anapplication portion, or an application) as a module that operates toperform specified operations. In an example, the software may reside ona machine-readable medium. In an example, the software, when executed bythe underlying hardware of the module, causes the hardware to performthe specified operations. Accordingly, the term hardware module isunderstood to encompass a tangible entity, be that an entity that isphysically constructed, specifically configured (e.g., hardwired), ortemporarily (e.g., transitorily) configured (e.g., programmed) tooperate in a specified manner or to perform part or all of any operationdescribed herein. Considering examples in which modules are temporarilyconfigured, each of the modules need not be instantiated at any onemoment in time. For example, where the modules comprise ageneral-purpose hardware processor configured using software; thegeneral-purpose hardware processor may be configured as respectivedifferent modules at different times. Software may accordingly configurea hardware processor, for example, to constitute a particular module atone instance of time and to constitute a different module at a differentinstance of time. Modules may also be software or firmware modules,which operate to perform the methodologies described herein.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a machine in the example form ofa computer system 600, within which a set or sequence of instructionsmay be executed to cause the machine to perform any one of themethodologies discussed herein, according to an example embodiment.Computer system machine 600 may be embodied by the processing servers136, the data warehouse 138, the smartphone 220, the advanced driverassistance system 208 or 302, the advanced driver assistance system 302,the incident collection system 330, the data anonymizing system 340, theincident communication system 350, or any other electronic processing orcomputing platform described or referred to herein. Further, theadvanced driver assistance system subsystems included in the motorvehicles described herein may include a processing system functioningsubstantially similar to the following described computer system.

In alternative embodiments, the machine operates as a standalone deviceor may be connected (e.g., networked) to other machines. In a networkeddeployment, the machine may operate in the capacity of either a serveror a client machine in server-client network environments, or it may actas a peer machine in peer-to-peer (or distributed) network environments.The machine may be an onboard vehicle system, wearable device, personalcomputer (PC), a tablet PC, a hybrid tablet, a personal digitalassistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, or any machine capable of executinginstructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be takenby that machine. Further, while only a single machine is illustrated,the term “machine” shall also be taken to include any collection ofmachines that individually or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets)of instructions to perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein. Similarly, the term “processor-based system” shall betaken to include any set of one or more machines that are controlled byor operated by a processor (e.g., a computer) to individually or jointlyexecute instructions to perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein.

Example computer system 600 includes at least one processor 602 (e.g., acentral processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU) or both,processor cores, compute nodes, etc.), a main memory 604 and a staticmemory 606, which communicate with each other via an interconnect 608(e.g., a link, a bus, etc.). The computer system 600 may further includea video display unit 610, an alphanumeric input device 612 (e.g., akeyboard), and a user interface (UI) navigation device 614 (e.g., amouse). In one embodiment, the video display unit 610, input device 612and UI navigation device 614 are incorporated into a touch screendisplay. The computer system 600 may additionally include a storagedevice 616 (e.g., a drive unit), a signal generation device 618 (e.g., aspeaker), an output controller 632, a power management controller 634, anetwork interface device 620 (which may include or operably communicatewith one or more antennas 630, transceivers, or other wirelesscommunications hardware), and one or more sensors 626, such as a globalpositioning system (GPS) sensor, compass, accelerometer, locationsensor, or other sensor.

The storage device 616 includes a machine-readable medium 622 on whichis stored one or more sets of data structures and instructions 624(e.g., software) embodying or utilized by any one or more of themethodologies or functions described herein. The instructions 624 mayalso reside, completely or at least partially, within the main memory604, static memory 606, and/or within the processor 602 during executionthereof by the computer system 600, with the main memory 604, staticmemory 606, and the processor 602 also constituting machine-readablemedia.

While the machine-readable medium 622 is illustrated in an exampleembodiment to be a single medium, the term “machine-readable medium” mayinclude a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized ordistributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) that storethe one or more instructions 624. The term “machine-readable medium”shall also be taken to include any tangible medium that is capable ofstoring, encoding or carrying instructions for execution by the machineand that cause the machine to perform any one or more of themethodologies of the present disclosure or that is capable of storing,encoding or carrying data structures utilized by or associated with suchinstructions. The term “machine-readable medium” shall accordingly betaken to include, but not be limited to, solid-state memories, andoptical and magnetic media. Specific examples of machine-readable mediainclude non-volatile memory, including but not limited to, by way ofexample, semiconductor memory devices (e.g., electrically programmableread-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-onlymemory (EEPROM)) and flash memory devices; magnetic disks such asinternal hard disks and removable disks; magneto-optical disks; andCD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks.

The instructions 624 may further be transmitted or received over acommunications network 628 using a transmission medium via the networkinterface device 620 utilizing any one of a number of well-knowntransfer protocols (e.g., HTTP). Examples of communication networksinclude a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), theInternet, mobile telephone networks, plain old telephone (POTS)networks, and wireless data networks (e.g., Wi-Fi, 2G/3G, and 4GLTE/LTE-A or WiMAX networks). The term “transmission medium” shall betaken to include any intangible medium that is capable of storing,encoding, or carrying instructions for execution by the machine, andincludes digital or analog communications signals or other intangiblemedium to facilitate communication of such software.

Additional examples of the presently described method, system, anddevice embodiments include the following, non-limiting configurations.Each of the following non-limiting examples may stand on its own, or maybe combined in any permutation or combination with any one or more ofthe other examples provided below or throughout the present disclosure.

Example 1 includes subject matter (embodied for example by a device,apparatus, machine, or machine-readable medium) arranged or configuredto communicate motor vehicle incident data, comprising: an incidentcollection module coupled to or implemented via a processor and memory,the incident collection module arranged or configured to extractinformation originating from a driving incident during operation of amotor vehicle, the information originating from the driving incidentbeing provided to the incident collection module from an on-boardelectronic subsystem of the motor vehicle, and the incident collectionmodule further arranged or configured to determine geographiccoordinates of the driving incident provided to the incident collectionmodule from a navigation system of the motor vehicle, wherein theon-board electronic subsystem generates the information in response tothe driving incident; and an incident communication module coupled tothe processor and memory, the incident communication module arranged orconfigured to communicate the information originating from the drivingincident and the geographic coordinates of the driving incident to adata aggregation system via a network.

In Example 2, the subject matter of Example 1 may optionally include, adata anonymizing module coupled to the processor and memory, the dataanonymizing module arranged or configured to anonymize the informationoriginating from the driving incident, wherein the informationoriginating from the driving incident is anonymized to removeidentification of the motor vehicle.

In Example 3 the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1 to 2may optionally include, the on-board electronic subsystem being anadvanced driver assistance system or safety system operating in themotor vehicle, wherein the on-board electronic subsystem providesparametric data indicating operating conditions of the advanced driverassistance system or safety system.

In Example 4 the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1 to 3may optionally include, the advanced driver assistance system includingone of more of: an obstacle detection system, a traffic conditionsystem, an anti-lock brake system, a collision avoidance or collisiondetection system, a lane departure system, or a camera system.

In Example 5 the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1 to 4may optionally include, the incident collection module and the incidentcommunication module being operably coupled to the advanced driverassistance system or safety system via a controller area network (CAN)bus interface.

In Example 6 the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1 to 5may optionally include, the incident collection module being arranged orconfigured to detect the driving incident based on data values producedby the on-board electronic subsystem.

In Example 7 the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1 to 6may optionally include, a transceiver arranged or configured forcommunication with a cellular phone network, wherein the incidentcommunication module is arranged or configured to communicate theinformation originating from the driving incident and the geographiccoordinates of the driving incident via the cellular phone network usinga short message service (SMS) text message.

In Example 8 the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1 to 7may optionally include, the incident collection module being arranged orconfigured to collect data for a plurality of driving incidents whereinthe incident communication module is arranged or configured tocommunicate the data for the plurality of driving incidents to the dataaggregation system via the network based on a determined schedule or adetermined condition.

In Example 9 the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1 to 8may optionally include, the incident communication module being arrangedor configured to communicate wirelessly with a mobile electronic devicein proximity to the motor vehicle, wherein the mobile electronic devicecommunicates the collected data for the plurality of driving incidentsto the data aggregation system via a wide area network.

Example 10 includes, or may optionally be combined with all or portionsof the subject matter of one or any combination of Examples 1-9, toembody subject matter (e.g., a method, machine readable medium, oroperations arranged or configured from an apparatus or machine) forcommunicating motor vehicle incident data, which when executed by amachine in operable communication with a motor vehicle, causes themachine to perform operations to: detect a motor vehicle incident frominformation produced by an on-board advanced driver assistance or safetysystem of the motor vehicle; capture information of the motor vehicleincident to be reported to an external system; determine locationinformation from a navigation system of the motor vehicle; associate thelocation information with the information of the motor vehicle incident;and communicate the information of the motor vehicle incident and thelocation information to the external system.

In Example 11 the subject matter of Example 10 may optionally include,operations to aggregate the information of the motor vehicle incidentwith a plurality of other motor vehicle incidents, wherein theoperations to communicate the information of the motor vehicle incidentfurther communicate the aggregated information of the plurality of othermotor vehicle incidents.

In Example 12 the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 10 to 11may optionally include, the operations to communicate the information ofthe motor vehicle incident and the plurality of other motor vehicleincidents being performed at a predetermined interval or in response toa collection of a determined number of incidents.

In Example 13 the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 10 to 12may optionally include, the information of the motor vehicle incidentincluding a time of occurrence for the motor vehicle incident, a type ofvehicle subsystem activated in response to the motor vehicle incident,and parametric data obtained from the vehicle subsystem activated inresponse to the motor vehicle incident.

In Example 14 the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 10 to 13may optionally include, operations to: remove user identifiableinformation from the parametric data obtained from the vehicle subsystemactivated in response to the motor vehicle incident.

In Example 15 the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 10 to 14may optionally include, instructions to communicate the information ofthe motor vehicle incident to the external system including instructionsto generate a message with event data including the information of themotor vehicle incident and the location information, wherein the messageis formatted for transmission as a short message service (SMS) textmessage.

In Example 16 the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 10 to 15may optionally include, the location information from the navigationsystem of the motor vehicle including global positioning system (GPS)coordinates determined from a global positioning system satellitereception processed by the navigation system.

In Example 17 the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 10 to 16may optionally include, the information of the motor vehicle incident iscorrelated with additional information obtained from a communicationwith: a vehicle control system of the motor vehicle, an intelligenttransportation system, or a second motor vehicle received via avehicular communication network; wherein the operations to communicatethe information of the motor vehicle incident and the locationinformation to the external system further communicate the additionalinformation to the external system.

Example 18 includes, or may optionally be combined with all or portionsof the subject matter of one or any combination of Examples 1-17, toembody subject matter (e.g., a method, machine readable medium, oroperations arranged or configured from an apparatus or machine) withoperations performed by a processor and memory of an electronic systemin communication with an electronic communication bus of the motorvehicle, the operations including: identifying data from an advanceddriver assistance system of a motor vehicle, the data indicating anadverse event detected by the advanced driver assistance system;correlating the identified data to time information and locationinformation, the location information determined from a set ofgeographical coordinates indicating a roadway location of the adverseevent detected by the advanced driver assistance system of the motorvehicle; anonymizing the identified data for the adverse event to removeinformation specific to the motor vehicle, the anonymized data includingthe time information and the location information; and communicating theanonymized data for the adverse event to a remote processing service.

In Example 19 the subject matter of Example 18 may optionally include,the anonymized data for the adverse event that is communicated includinginformation indicating of a type of advanced driver assistance systemactivated, and parametric data produced from activation of the advanceddriver assistance system.

In Example 20 the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 18 to 19may optionally include, correlating the identified data to the locationinformation includes identifying the location information from globalnavigation satellite system coordinates provided by a navigation systemoperating in the motor vehicle.

In Example 21 the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 18 to 20may optionally include, recording the time and the location informationfor a detected occurrence of the adverse event during operation of themotor vehicle at a designated area of a roadway system.

In Example 22 the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 18 to 21may optionally include, aggregating information for the adverse eventoccurring at a first location and a second adverse event at a secondlocation; wherein communicating the anonymized data for the adverseevent to a processing system further includes communicating data for thesecond adverse event to the remote processing service.

In Example 23 the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 18 to 22may optionally include, the data being communicated from the motorvehicle to the remote processing service using a cellular network, awireless local area network, or via an internet-connected smartphone.

In Example 24 the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 16 to 23may optionally include, the identified data from the advanced driverassistance system including data generated from an obstacle detectionsystem, a collision avoidance system, or a lane departure system andwherein the identified data indicates the type of advanced driverassistance system invoked by the adverse event.

Example 25 includes subject matter embodied by a machine-readable mediumincluding instructions for operation of a motor vehicle monitoringsystem, which when executed by a machine, cause the machine to performoperations of the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 16 to24.

Example 26 includes subject matter embodied by an apparatus comprisingmeans for performing any of the methods of the subject matter of any oneor more of Examples 16 to 24.

In Example 27 the subject matter may optionally include, or mayoptionally be combined with all or portions of the subject matter of oneor any combination of Examples 1-26 to include, a method, performed by adata processing system including a processor and memory, comprisingoperations performed by the processor and memory, and the operationsincluding: receiving data from a vehicular monitoring system;aggregating the data from the vehicular monitoring system with datacollected from a plurality of other vehicular monitoring systems;filtering the aggregated data based on the types of adverse incidents;identifying common adverse incidents from the filtered aggregated data;and identifying locations of interest in a roadway system, based onproximity of the common adverse incidents to each other.

In Example 28 the subject matter of Example 27 may optionally include,the data being communicated from the vehicular monitoring system to thedata processing system using a cellular network.

In Example 29 the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 27 to 28may optionally include, the data being communicated to the dataprocessing system via the cellular network using a short message service(SMS) text message.

In Example 30 the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 27 to 29may optionally include, the data being communicated from the vehicularmonitoring system to the data processing system using an internetconnection to the data processing system via a wireless local areanetwork connection.

In Example 31 the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 27 to 30may optionally include, the data including a plurality of eventsaggregated over a period of time.

In Example 32 the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 27 to 31may optionally include, the data being used to identify driver patterns,safety critical systems of the roadway system, or other infrastructurerelated services of the roadway system.

In Example 33 the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 27 to 32may optionally include, the data being used in an analytics service toprovide graphical reports on locations of respective incidents or thenumber of respective incidents.

In Example 34 the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 27 to 33may optionally include, the data being correlated with information froman intelligent transportation system, wherein the information from theintelligent transportation system provides traffic information for thelocations of interest.

In Example 35 the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 27 to 34may optionally include, the data being correlated with information fromautomotive service providers collected at the locations of interest.

In Example 36 the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 27 to 35may optionally include, correlating the identified locations of interestto design elements of the roadway system.

In Example 37 the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 27 to 36may optionally include, correlating the identified locations of interestto traffic control system elements of the roadway system.

Example 38 includes subject matter for a machine-readable mediumincluding instructions for providing features of a data processingsystem, which when executed by a machine, cause the machine to performoperations of any one or combination of Examples 27-37.

Example 39 includes subject matter for an apparatus comprising means forperforming any one or combination of Examples 27-37.

Example 40 includes, or may optionally be combined with all or portionsof the subject matter of one or any combination of Examples 1-39 toinclude subject matter for an electronic component arranged orconfigured to interface with a controller area network (CAN) of a motorvehicle, comprising hardware programmed to: detect a subject event froma subsystem accessible on the controller area network; record thesubject event and information for the subject event; identify locationinformation from a navigation system accessible on the controller areanetwork; record location information for the subject event; aggregate aplurality of events including the subject event with respective locationinformation for the plurality of events; and communicate the pluralityof events to an internet-accessible processing system using a wirelesscommunication initiated by the electronic component.

The above detailed description includes references to the accompanyingdrawings, which form a part of the detailed description. The drawingsshow, by way of illustration, specific embodiments that may bepracticed. These embodiments are also referred to herein as “examples.”Such examples may include elements in addition to those shown ordescribed. However, also contemplated are examples that include theelements shown or described. Moreover, also contemplate are examplesusing any combination or permutation of those elements shown ordescribed (or one or more aspects thereof), either with respect to aparticular example (or one or more aspects thereof), or with respect toother examples (or one or more aspects thereof) shown or describedherein.

In this document, the terms “a” or “an” are used, as is common in patentdocuments, to include one or more than one, independent of any otherinstances or usages of “at least one” or “one or more.” In thisdocument, the term “or” is used to refer to a nonexclusive or, such that“A or B” includes “A but not B,” “B but not A,” and “A and B.” unlessotherwise indicated. In the appended claims, the terms “including” and“in which” are used as the plain-English equivalents of the respectiveterms “comprising” and “wherein.” Also, in the following claims, theterms “including” and “comprising” are open-ended, that is, a system,device, article, or process that includes elements in addition to thoselisted after such a term in a claim are still deemed to fall within thescope of that claim. Moreover, in the following claims, the terms“first.” “second,” and “third,” etc. are used merely as labels, and arenot intended to suggest a numerical order for their objects.

The above description is intended to be illustrative, and notrestrictive. For example, the above-described examples (or one or moreaspects thereof) may be used in combination with others. Otherembodiments may be used, such as by one of ordinary skill in the artupon reviewing the above description. The Abstract is to allow thereader to quickly ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure andis submitted with the understanding that it will not be used tointerpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. Also, in theabove Detailed Description, various features may be grouped together tostreamline the disclosure. However, the claims may not set forth everyfeature disclosed herein as embodiments may feature a subset of saidfeatures. Further, embodiments may include fewer features than thosedisclosed in a particular example. Thus, the following claims are herebyincorporated into the Detailed Description, with a claim standing on itsown as a separate embodiment. The scope of the embodiments disclosedherein is to be determined with reference to the appended claims, alongwith the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus arranged to communicate motorvehicle incident data, the apparatus comprising: an incident collectionmodule, implemented via a processor and memory, the incident collectionmodule arranged to extract information originating from a drivingincident during operation of a motor vehicle, the informationoriginating from the driving incident being provided to the incidentcollection module from an on-board electronic subsystem of the motorvehicle, and the incident collection module further arranged todetermine geographic coordinates of the driving incident provided to theincident collection module from a navigation system of the motorvehicle, wherein the on-board electronic subsystem generates theinformation in response to the driving incident; and an incidentcommunication module coupled to the processor and memory, the incidentcommunication module arranged to communicate the information originatingfrom the driving incident and the geographic coordinates of the drivingincident to a data aggregation system via a network.